HaHaHaHa! 10 facts about The Joker

The charismatic villain of DC comics and self proclaimed Clown Prince of Crime is one of the best and most appealing villains in the comic book literature. His origins as an insane knave and as a comic character are blurry and controversial, which may be what gives him the power of attraction.

The Joker has appeared in nearly every level DC media, most prominently in those that feature Batman. He appeared in the Batman: The Animated Series, Batman the Brave and the Bold, Justice League, and Justice League Unlimited, the other Batman Animated series, Young Justice, the Assault on Arkham animated movie, the Arkham and Injustice Games, and many more.

He also had a number of live-action appearances in the 1966 Batman TV show, played by actor Cesar Romero, in the 1989 Batman movie, played by Jack Nicholson, in the Dark Knight movie played by the late Heath Ledger, and will appear in the upcoming Suicide Squad movie in 2016, played by Jared Leto.

His demented smile, his psychotic personality, and his ruthless and chaotic crime sprees have been in the hearts of fans since his conception and will continue to be for years to come.

And yet, he is a very mysterious character. In 75 years many stories have been told and many things have happened to the Joker, but a good number of those remain largely unknown. This is why today we are going to go through 10 facts that you might not know about the Joker:

10. He was created as a one-time character.

These days, it's hard to image the Joker as anything other than Batman's archenemy. He is the yin to Batman's yang, the chaos to Batman's order, the punchline to his joke. But when he was first created, that was not the case. The Joker was created by Bob Kane and Jerry Robinson and first appeared in Batman #1 released in April, 1940.

In that issue, Joker is portrayed as a thief and a murderer, who uses the Joker toxin to commit crimes — but most importantly, he was supposed to die. At the end of that issue, Joker was supposed to be killed off by a stab in the heart, because the creative team of people behind him felt that a recurring villain would make Batman boring. Luckily he was saved by the then editor Whitney Ellsworth, establishing Joker as a recurring villain and later on the Bat's biggest archenemy. Talk about a bullet dodged.

9. His origins are as chaotic as his personality.

In the Dark Knight live-action movie, the Heath Ledger Joker, made up different, imaginative origins for his facial scars. Well, in the comics this goes a little further. There are no recorded origins or a true backstory for the Joker. The closest DC ever came to unveiling his origin was during the 'Killing Joke' storyline, when it was revealed that he was a member of the Red Hood gang that got accidentally thrown in a chemical vat by Batman. It was soon debunked. He himself has stated that he doesn't remember his story, remembering different versions of it every time. He even went on to state that, "If I ever have a backstory, I want it to be multiply choice."

It was also suggested by Paul Dekker of the Doctor's Three that he is immortal and the manifestation of an entity of chaos. But even that was later proved false.

8. His conception is as chaotic as his origin.

If you thought that his origins were complicated and mysterious, you have seen nothing yet. His conception is as much or even more complicated than his origin. All three people credited with the creation of the Joker remember different versions of his creation. Bill Finger claims that he showed a picture of Conrad Veidt, the actor portraying Gwynplaine in Victor Hugo's, The Man Who Laughs and modeled the Joker after him.

Bob Kane, however, claims that he and Bill Finger were inspired to create the Joker by a card showed to them by Jerry Robinson, and then found the aforementioned picture and modeled the Joker after it. And finally, Jerry Robinson claims that he drew the Joker and then showed it to Bill Finger. When Bill Finger saw the picture he suggested that he looked like Conrad Veidt and thus created the Joker. We can safely agree that the Joker was inspired by Conrad Veidt, but absolutely nothing else.

7. He is not insane.

The Joker was always associated with insanity. He was always portrayed as the crazy, sociopathic, lunatic who murders people because it's fun. Yet he is not insane. As stated by Grant Morrison, Joker's mental state is a form of "super-sanity." Instead of being detached and sociopathic, Joker understands everything around him in way no other person can, even realizing that he is a comic book character. This explains his unnatural tactical abilities, sociopathy, disregard for human life, and fourth wall breaking. Note, that while we, the audience, know that he is not insane, everybody in the DC universe still considers him so and he is treated as a mentally ill person.